Abstract [en]

Since public organisations are not driven for profit like private organisations are, there really is no use in applying management tools based on a company's will to create profit. Because of this, management by objectives has become a popular method of management during the late half of the 20th century. This involves the employees being given certain goals to achieve as part of developing the organisation and pushing it forward. The aim of this study is to spread awareness of how a local division at Skatteupplysningen, the customer services of the Swedish Tax Agency, is affected by management by objectives. In order to investigate this, an interview has been conducted with the head of the local division as well as a survey answered by the employees at the local division. In addition to this, there was also a group discussion with four of the employees as a means to get a deeper knowledge of the answers given in the survey. Key aspects of management by objectives has been proven to be motivation amongst the employees as well as participation in the goal setting process. Even though Skatteverket historically speaking has been a top-down organization, the goal setting process has been moved to management on lower levels in the organization. Despite this, the employees at Skatteupplysningen still have almost no say in the goal setting process. Even though the employees at the local division have close to no say in the planning of goals, they still show a great deal of motivation and working spirit. This could be explained by the recent changes that has been conducted inside Skatteupplysningen, where the employees now have the power to create their own schedules and plan their working hours in advance. The higher level of motivation is probably also due to the fact that the head of the division acknowledges each employee as an individual and adjusts the individual goals as much as possible, as well as the fact that the management of Skatteupplysningen actually listened to the employees and showed that their opinions matters to the organization. A risk factor that Skatteupplysningen will encounter is that only the quantifiable, statistical goals will be evaluated, when it is in fact the qualitative goals regarding customer satisfaction that should be the main priority.